Addict tried to strangle partner after she threw away his drugs

A heroin addict tried to strangle his partner with an alarm cord after she threw his drugs away, a court has heard.
Mansfield Magistrates CourtMansfield Magistrates Court
Mansfield Magistrates Court

Jamie Drysdale, 25, of Manvers Court, Shirebrook, admitted assaulting his ex-partner and punching her teenage son when he tried to intervene on January 8, at Brand Lane in Sutton.

Jo Chadd, prosecuting, told the court Drysdale had returned home the previous day with diazepam tablets, but when he discovered they were gone he became enraged.

Miss Chadd said the woman tried to call the police on her mobile phone and then a landline, but Drysdale kept grabbing them from her.

When she tried to leave, Drysdale grabbed her coat and pulled her back in to the house where a Home Office alarm was installed.

Ms Chadd said: “Mr Drysdale pulled the cord that activated the alarm and started to wrap it around her neck and tried to strangled her.

“Fortunately the cord was too short and she managed to get away from him.”

The court heard that the row woke the woman’s son who saw his mother in the lounge with Drysdale straddling her. He ran over and pushed Drysdale off, but then Drysdale punched him in the left side of the head.

Drysdale, who has been in police custody since January 9, denied using the cord, but accepted that he had assaulted the woman.

The court heard he had been convicted of assault and criminal damage in September last year and had been given a 14-week sentence, suspended for 12 months. On December 3 he breached the conditions of the sentence by failing to attend a rehabilitation activity requirement.

Deborah Bell, mitigating, said Drysdale waived his right to have a report prepared by the probation service before sentencing.

She said he had been in the grip of a heroin addiction since the age of 19 but had recently been on the methadone programme.

“On Boxing Day he failed to collect his methadone script and started using heroin again,” she said. “He was trying hard to stop taking heroin and bought tablets on the street to deal with it.

“His partner was doing her best to try and stop him.”

Ms Bell said Drysdale had been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia by prison psychiatrists and was now taking anti-psychotic medication.

“Since the age of 19 he has never not used a drug - either heroin, methadone or subutex,” she said. “Starting tomorrow he is doing a supervised detox from everything.”

She said Drysdale was a qualified welder and hoped to have a job waiting for him on his release.

Magistrates sentenced him to a total of 20 weeks in prison and ordered him to pay a £80 victim surcharge. He was banned from contacting his former partner for two years.